We may be officially out of the recession, but it's probably safe to say that the impact on corporate America is still being seen and felt. Companies continue to scrutinize their spending and are only slowly beginning to hire again in meaningful numbers. For those of us in the world of branding, the recession appears to have resulted in an interesting phenomenon. The length and severity of the "belt-tightening" over the last two years seems to have caused a noticeable shift in how companies approach brand-building.

Now more than ever, companies are avoiding splashy brand launch programs. They don't want to seem insensitive to their employees by spending on lavish, loud announcements and rollouts—especially when they've perhaps let some of their staff go recently. Instead, they are focused on looking inside and "operationalizing" their brands—really driving them through their organizations. They're thinking about how they can leverage their brand to engage their workforce. More and more companies, for example, are excited about tapping into their brand as a means for conducting more effective performance evaluations or driving smarter recruiting strategies.

This is good news for the reputation and business of corporate branding. Branding has long been synonymous with marketing communications. But the recession has helped reinforce and maybe even elevate the role and importance of brand-building as a filter for helping an organization attract and retain good people.

Matthew Huss is a strategy director for the Siegel+Gale New York office.